The La Motta Socio-Therapeutic Institute has been part of Brissago for decades. Today we want to tell her story and her role in the community. The foundation dates back to 1938, thanks to Dr. Ita Wegman, a close collaborator of Rudolf Steiner, father of anthroposophy and, together with Dr. Wegman herself, of anthroposophic medicine. The Institute was originally established as a nursing home for children, many of whom came from the Sonnenhof Institute in Arlesheim, to escape National Socialism and escape euthanasia. In particular, they were Jewish children with disabilities. During the Second World War La Motta actively collaborated with the Swiss Red Cross, producing tonics distributed to people in need.

Over the years, it has welcomed people from all over the world, becoming a point of reference in care and assistance. Today La Motta is included in the cantonal planning of the LISPI institutes and recognized as a House with employment and increased educational needs.

“At first, the environment was very familiar – explains the director, Riccardo Lüthi –: the staff lived within the Institute, cultivated the fields using biological and biodynamic methods and provided care in a context that valued nature, climate and culture. From the 1980s to the 1990s, La Motta began to become bilingual, with a progressive increase in users in the Canton of Ticino. In 2014 it was transformed into a foundation to meet modern organizational needs and underwent a complete renovation of the buildings between 2000 and 2012, thanks to public and private contributions. Today La Motta proudly carries on Dr Wegman’s legacy, keeping alive a vision centred on human dignity, individual care and community, with a socio-therapeutic approach that has been refined day by day”.

The relationship with the community of Brissago

Giovanni Chiappini, head of the Dicastery for Social Affairs in the Municipality of Brissago, is well aware of the reality of La Motta – but also of the Hildebrand Clinic and the Casa San Giorgio – having worked there years ago as an architect. “For this reason – he says – I have a heightened awareness of the role that the institutions operating in Brissago in the social and health field play for our reality. We are proud to host such an important care and assistance network that is an integral part of our country’s history.”

The Motta has always had a national (in the past also international) and from the 1980s progressively also cantonal, adds conductor Lüthi. “Over time, it has built a strong connection with the local community. The involvement takes place through cultural events, markets, collaborations with institutions and the sale of the products of the ateliers. In addition, the relationship with Brissago is also nourished by spontaneous encounters with citizens, in our shop “Spazio Colore”, through the streets and in the meeting places of the country. The climate, nature and social fabric of the area are an integral part of our care approach.”

And in this regard, Chiappini expresses a wish: “I hope that the Brissago community will continue to welcome users with the sensitivity it has always had, and that those who do not yet know these realities – I am thinking of La Motta but also of the other institutes – will go and discover them and perhaps decide to support them with a concrete gesture”.

This is echoed by Lüthi: “We like to think that the people of Brissago know us, appreciate us and love us. We often hear, in small daily gestures, in meetings on the street, in greetings and words of encouragement, how close the community is to us and follows our path with affection. We like to believe that people are aware that finding the resources necessary to ensure a dignified life for our users is not a given and that, precisely for this reason, they will be able to seize the opportunities to give visibility to La Motta, promote its knowledge and, perhaps, transform this closeness into spontaneous gestures of support and philanthropy”.

How La Motta is financed

Motta is supported by public contributions, through a mandate and a performance contract with the Canton of Ticino and other Swiss cantons. The funding also includes the collection of the daily fee (covered by the AI) of each user. However, as public subsidies do not cover all management costs, it is the Foundation, through its own capital and with the support of private citizens and donors, that ensures the economic stability of the Institute.

The Foundation’s mission is to ensure stability and continuity, raise funds and keep the Institute’s social and therapeutic mission alive.

Currently La Motta welcomes 11 day users and 45 residents, of which 18 come from German-speaking Switzerland and 27 from Ticino, explains the director. Residents live divided into 7 housing units that reflect a family context.

Daily activities are divided into three main areas:

• Occupational workshops: paper, candles, wood, bakery, weaving, iron and stone, preparation of spices, tea and jams, gardening, wood splitter, delivery business, etc. These ateliers strengthen the sense of belonging, personal growth and social enhancement, also thanks to the sale of products in the markets.
• Therapies: With regard to anthroposophic therapies: Healing eurythmia, music therapy, bath in oil dispersion, rhythmic massage. These therapies are prescribed by the anthroposophical doctor to stimulate vital forces, harmonise emotional balance and promote identity. For classic therapies: physiotherapy, ergotherapy, speech therapy, hippotherapy and ortho-bionomy.
• Cultural and recreational activities: singing, movement, community parties, disco, walks, swimming pool, games, holiday camps, etc.

“We promote autonomy – explains the director – through targeted support that helps each user to express their potential. It is a daily balance between support and freedom, always seeking to stimulate self-determination without losing sight of safety and well-being.”

Philosophy and future challenges

Over the years, explains the director, ‘La Motta has moved from a nursing home for children to a place capable of accompanying people in adult life, developing occupational workshops and community activities. The challenge is to offer meaningful and personalized life paths, enhancing skills and desire for expression in a social context. Our users are mainly people with congenital cognitive disabilities, many of whom require intensive accompaniment. Our approach is deeply relational: We recognize and value individual resources, adapting each intervention to specific needs. The great challenge is to maintain the balance between individual and community needs, between freedom and protection, between self-determination and accompaniment. All this takes place in a context of financial precariousness, which makes our commitment to keeping sociotherapy alive even more valuable”.